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Church Carry: What is a "Church"?

Howdy folks,

The CWP finally showed up in the mail last Thursday, and here's one of my first few osts.

As the law states:

(M) A permit issued pursuant to this section does not authorize a permit holder to carry a concealable weapon into a:
(9) church or other established religious sanctuary unless express permission is given by the appropriate church official or governing body

What is a "church?" Is this just the sanctuary? Is it just the main church property? Is it other church owned buildings throughout the town?

Is it Sunday mornings only? Just worship services? Kind of vague, here, of course.

Well, first of all, congratulations for being one of us. I hope you use that permit well. Secondly, since you quoted ..."...unless express permission is given by the appropriate church official or governing body" you should ask the permission of your pastor, priest or whoever is in charge, to allow you to carry in the premises. Better to be safe than sorry.

Well I'll have to give this some thought after all that. I've had my heater with me for every church service or activity I've attended the past couple of years and nobody has said anything to me. Not to get into 'that' discussion again, but it's true that nobody has run out of the church screaming "man with a gun!", nor have I gotton any looks or anything. I suppose I have not given the idea of asking for permission enough thought.

I don't consider the law vague at all and am a resident of SC. Here it says that you must have permission to carry but it does not say when the permission has to be given and just says by those in charge which can mean different things to different churches. For you to be charged with possession at church there must be some reason for the LEO to find out and then the church officials must agree with the LEO.

For example you conceal carry your gun to church. For some reason you are discovered and a complaint is made and the cops are called. Now who discovered you and who called the cops. If is was some busy-body lady in the back row and the cops get there you say that you have permission from the preacher. You feel that you have implied permission even if you do not have written permission. The officer asks the preacher if you have permission and he either say yes and you are freed or he says no and you go to jail and not back to that church. So depending on how involved with the church you are will probably have a large bearing on the answer the preacher gives.

So the question is how did they discover you were carrying and what kind of relationship do you have with the leaders of the church? Cops are not going to walk into a church and start searching everyone to see if they are carrying. Your decision on whether to carry or not is based of a lot of variables including the size of the church, the attitude of the members as a whole, your relationship with the members and leaders of the church as well as other things. There are some churches that the only comment you would hear would be is where did you get that gun. Some others I would highly advise keeping it concealed if you insist on carrying.

Not too long ago the pastor of a church I attended for over 10 years saw one of my posts about not being able to conceal carry in a restaurant. He felt compelled to post on my FB wall the fact that I was also not allowed to carry in a place of worship unless permission was given. I replied back to him that I was already aware of that law and that I had never carried a concealed weapon at church. I also would not ask him for permission because I already knew the answer. The answer would have been NO. LOL. This pastor has several long guns but I am not sure he owns any handguns. He is ex military so I do not believe he is anti 2nd amendment. I just believe that he wants to protect the rights of those folks who chose not to carry a concealed weapon nor do they want to go to church with those that do. We no longer go to church at that congregation so it is a moot point at this time.

LOL, all us deacons carry except one. I rotated off the board this year but my replacement also carries. We know who does and who doesn't--just in case. Our past preacher saw my holster while in the parking lot and asked me what caliber my "cell phone" was. Country living is super.
ETA: just a note on security--we voted to put locking doors on all buildings and after services begin they are all locked except for the front entrance/foyer. We posted signs to that effect and have had no problems.